The ups and downs of raising a large family

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Archive | June 2015

Well it’s official! I have a senior in high school! How or when this happened I have no idea. But if anyone sees the guy that sold me the stay young forever potion, let me know because it didn’t work. Instead here we are, enjoying the last summer we will have before adulthood takes one of our daughters. This is also the last summer before all four of my kids are school age. Yup, I have one finishing their school journey while another one begins. Crazy! Even though we don’t have any vacations planned, I am still trying to be around and involved as much as possible before I am not needed anymore. And also taking this time to lecture as much as possible.

This also may be the last summer we have our great dane, Duece. He is 9 yrs old and is having some leg problems. The pain is getting worse everyday for him and he just gives this look like it’s time. So we are calling our vet out next week and finding out our options.

I also have my middle daughter turning 16, going on a plane for the first time and taking her first vacation without me and finishing up driver’s ed.

There are also some big decisions to be made about my special needs daughter this summer.

Maybe I should have titled this the summer of letting go…. because that is what it seems like. So if I am around a lot less or seem like I disappeared, don’t worry just juggling too many balls in the air right now.

Gather round boys and girls, I’m gonna tell ya about a duck named Lucky and why she is named Lucky.

This year I really just wanted to add ducks to my homestead. I have always had a love for ducks and Koda really wanted some too. So I decided (after much research) that I wanted to hatch them. My neighbor has ducks and she gave me some eggs. But they turned out to be infertile. So I order 6 eggs off of ebay.

The eggs came in and they were beautiful looking. I let them sit and settle from all the bumps of being shipped. And then I put them in the incubator. 28 days later it was hatching day. Except it wasn’t. Nothing happened. 2 eggs pipped and I could see a beak. But that was it for about 24 hours. One duck ended up getting shrink wrapped in it’s shell. I could see the other one was still moving so Hubby and I decided to perform a c-section.

We got the lil’ gal out, but her yolk wasn’t absorbed and she was having a hard time. We told the kids not to get too excited because we didn’t know if she would survive or not. This was Easter Sunday and my family that came over was convinced she wasn’t going to survive.

I left her in the incubator for 2 days while her yolk absorbed and her umbilical cord dried enough that I could cut it. I moved her into a separate brooder in the office away from high traffic and noise. That is when I realized she couldn’t walk. She would flop on her back if you stood her up. She would just stay where ever you put her.

Hubby immediately started doing research on his computer while I was on the other. We both came to the conclusion that it was probably spraddle leg. Using the Fresh Eggs Daily website, we followed the directions for wrapping her legs. I knew it was going to take a lot of work to get this duck to survive. This was when my Hubby said “if this duck survives, we should name her Lucky.”

Every hour my cell alarm would go off and I would go in to help her eat and drink. I would stand her up and brace her up with my hand on her back. I would let her take some steps on her own, guiding her to the food and water. If she fell, I would get her right back up again.

About 24 hours of this and I realized her neck wasn’t quite right. So more research confirmed wry neck. I immediately started adding Nutri-drench to her water. That quickly fixed her neck problem.

Back to the leg problem, I probably did this every hour thing for 2 days. At night, I made sure she got food before I went to bed and immediately when I woke up at 4:30 am. Every day, I did the little therapy with her. Getting her upright and forcing her to walk. I also gave her a stuffed puppy to cuddle with. I then realized I could prop her up between the legs of the dog and that would help also. Then one day I found her on the other side of the brooder from where I left her. So I started standing her up and watching, within a week she was moving about all on her own. She was a little wobbly, but she was walking normally and that was all that mattered.

She was about 2 weeks old at this point and I knew we needed some real duck friends. I saw an ad on Craigslist and went to go look at ducklings who were the same age as our little one. Except I quickly realized that she much, much smaller and that would never work. I didn’t want them bulldozing her. So I held off.

I had some chicks I was selling, but there was one that my kids just really loved. So before the lady came to buy them all. I swiped that lil one up and stuck in the brooder with Lucky. At first, they weren’t happy. They stared at each other like what are you. But they quickly become best friends.

Then I had some more eggs hatch and I put the chicks in there with them also. She became the little mother duck to 9 chicks.

This all started on Easter weekend, April 4th. As I am writing this it is June 1st and I can report that Lucky is doing fantastic! She is outside with my big girls, teenagers and her little kids.

She hates water, but loves mealworms! I tried to separate her from her babies and it didn’t go over very well. So I moved the little kids outside with her in a playpen. She calls for her babies and they call for her. They are very much attached to each other. It is really sweet! I honestly don’t think she knows she is a duck. I think she thinks she is a chicken. I bought and hatched 5 more ducks and she doesn’t care about them, just her little babies.

It was a lot of work, but completely worth it in the end.

Check out my facebook page to see the video of when I tried to separate Lucky from her babies.